Ali: A Life

Johnathan Eig

Chicago author (and recent Pulitzer Prize winner) includes in this life story a fair bit about Chicago’s importance to Ali. In a WTTW interview on August 9, 2021, Eig says, “Ali lived here for some of the most important years of his career. You could say that he had his racial awakening here, because it's when he begins to box as an amateur and travels to Chicago for the first time that he sees that the rest of America is different [than Louisville].” Later in the interview, he says, “He says he lost his virginity in Chicago, so that's a big deal. But it's also a place where he started to get national attention. He loved those two things a lot: sex and media attention. But to be serious about it, Chicago was really where he began to find a national stage and to realize that he could be special. He’s still in high school [when he first comes to Chicago for the Golden Gloves tournament], and he’s cocky, but he doesn't know yet whether he's special as a boxer.

Published: 2017